Exchange student organization defends Palestinian student seeking admission to Northern York County School District

Rami Amjad Yahya likes computers and loves music. The Palestinian student is nervous about going to high school in a place not familiar to him, and he understands the cultural differences he’d likely face will be more difficult for him than for any community he would end up in.

But the West Bank native seeking to be a foreign exchange student in the Susquehanna Valley could be denied admission to the Northern York School District after some school board members have raised questions about his religious and political affiliations, some fearing he could bring anti-American sentiments to the region.

The umbrella organization which places exchange students like Rami is called Youth for Understanding and was founded during the World War II era on the principle of giving students from misunderstood cultures the chance to come to America and take what they learned home with them. YFU defended Rami, saying he’s just the type of student YFU hopes to place in homes across America.

Michael Hill

“We believe that if he comes here and has a positive experience, that when he goes back, the possibility that he will dramatically improve the political and diplomatic relationship between our two countries is great,” said Michael Hill, president and CEO of YFU.

During a Tuesday school board committee meeting, at least two board members raised questions about Rami’s potential admittance.

Board Member Mike Barndt said during the meeting that he was concerned that the student referred to himself on his application as being from the “occupied territory of Ramaliah” rather than simply from the “West Bank," a war-torn area where Palestinians and Israelis have seen conflict for decades.

Board Vice President Greg Hlatky said his concerns have "everything to do with the political aspirations of the country.”

Hill said Rami’s characterization of the West Bank as an “occupied territory” is his perspective as a Palestinian, but that perspective doesn’t necessarily mean he is coming to America as anti-Israeli or anti-American.

“Just because Rami feels the place he lives in is occupied doesn’t mean that he has hateful sentiments for Israelis or Americans,” Hill said. “He applied, was screened and was accepted to our program. I think that demonstrates the opposite is true.”

Hill elaborated in his defense of Rami, saying there is a courage factor associated with what the student hopes to do in terms of coming to a new country and hoping to live and thrive there. He also said the organization doesn’t intend on criticizing the school board, and said the organization “doesn’t pretend to understand the intricacies of a school board.”

School board members didn't return phone calls made Wednesday seeking follow up comment. The school administration recommended the board accept Rami's entrance to the district, and superintendent Eric Eshbach said Wednesday the discussions that have occurred with regard to this student are normal dissension among board members.

But the amount of school boards that deny students based on religious or political affiliations centering around these types of fears is small. YFU places between 1,800 and 2,000 students a year in homes across America, and Hill said that by percentage, these types of cases are “rare.”

Hill said YFU plans to send a letter of support to Eshbach that is intended to be shared with the board, adding that programs don’t succeed without the support of school administrators. Hill said he believes it is important for board members to be fully informed about the conduit by which the student is coming.

Rami is expected to stay with a host family that has experience hosting foreign exchange students and he is coming through a U.S. government-sponsored program.

“The expectation is that he will share his impressions of the United States and we have every reason to believe he will shed a positive light on the U.S. in a region that doesn’t often hear positive stories about the U.S.,” Hill said.

Jim and Beth Shelly, the Dillsburg family set to host Rami, couldn’t be reached for comment. Officials said at Tuesday’s committee meeting that the couple is out of town.

The U.S. government-sponsored program with which Rami is involved is the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study which was created after 9/11 and is funded by the Department of State. It provides scholarships to students from countries with significant Muslim populations so that they can spend up to one academic year in the United States.

The program, founded by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. Richard Lugar, aims to provide opportunities for Americans and those from Muslim countries to engage with each other in hopes of fostering a level of understanding that may not have been present before.

The School Board will vote on whether to accept the student at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Northern York High School library. The district accepts up to four students each year, at a cost of $7,000 each.

School administrators brought up at the committee meeting Tuesday that one of those students admitted in the past came from a war-torn area. Last October, the board unanimously admitted a student from Cairo, Egypt.

Eshbach said there was little to no dissension among board members as to whether or not they would admit that student.